Strontian – Coastal Road Trip

Day 17 – Strontian to Broadford

Exciting day today. We’re on our way to the Isle of Skye, which we have wanted to visit for many years. But we’ll start the day heading west, before continuing north.

Photo of the day

Coastal Road Trip, Road to Aird of Sleat, Yellow boat — So tranquil, along the road to the Aird of Sleat.

Ardnamurchan

Coastal Road Trip, Ardnamurchan Sign — On our way to Ardnamurchan, the most westerly point on the British Mainland.

Coastal Road Trip, Road to Ardnamurchan, Julian, Jarno — Quick photo stop.

Coastal Road Trip, Ardnamurchan, Julian, Jarno — And we arrived!

Coastal Road Trip, Ardnamurchan, EV, Electric car charge point — …and despite being literally on the edge of the land we could have charged our electric car (handy, if we had one).

Coastal Road Trip, Ardnamurchan, Mingary Castle — Mingary Castle, we couldn’t visit as the ruin was under renovation.

Coastal Road Trip, Ardnamurchan Lighthouse — Yay! Another lighthouse. Of course we couldn’t visit this most westerly point without dropping by on Ardnamurchan Lighthouse. The only Egyptian style lighthouse in the UK. This one was open to the public and had a small museum, we had a little look around before realising that we were meant to pay…

Ardslignish

Coastal Road Trip, Ardslignish, Bay — Driving back east we came to this little bay near Ardslignish, and look.. cows sunbathing on the beach.

Coastal Road Trip, Ardslignish, Bay, Beach, Cows — Scottish cows do seem to enjoy the beach, well why not?

Coastal Road Trip, Ardslignish, Rolling roads — Beautiful views along the country lanes.

Ardtoe

Coastal Road Trip, Ardtoe, Beach writing — Doing a bit of marketing, however absolutely no one else around at the secluded beach near Ardtoe, so not sure who we were marketing too… 😉

Loch Ailort

Coastal Road Trip, Loch Ailort — Views down Loch Ailort. After a very quiet morning (which we loved), all of a sudden it started getting busier as we joined the rest of the road trippers heading to Mallaig to get the ferry over to the Isle of Skye.

Mallaig to Armadale

Coastal Road Trip, Mallaig to Armadale Ferry, Julian & Jarno — A bit of a chilly sail over to Armadale on the Isle of Skye.

Coastal Road Trip, Mallaig to Armadale Ferry, Scenery — But what dramatic scenery looking up the Sound of Sleat.

Aird of Sleat

Coastal Road Trip, Road to Aird of Sleat — Along the road to the Aird of Sleat, the most southerly point of the Isle of Skye.

Coastal Road Trip, Road to Aird of Sleat, Yellow boat — Loving the Isle of Skye already, and only been here 15 minutes! Next stop Broadford for the first of 3 nights on the Isle of Skye.

Broadford

Coastal Road Trip, Broadford, Baked beans on toast, Julian, Jarno — In a hostal tonight, so we treated ourselves to baked beans on toast 😉

Daily video

Day 16 – Oban to Strontian

A slightly late start to the day, as our hotel had wifi that actually worked pretty well, something we struggled with for the next week or so. So we took advantage of the speedy wifi to catch-up on the blog!

Then we spent much of the day driving along the side of several beautiful lochs, and we really started to appreciate the importance of the large network of Scottish ferries.

Photo of the day

Coastal Road Trip, Dunstaffnage Castle, Pigeon — A pigeon keeping an eye on us from the rather green walls of Dunstaffnage Castle.

Dunstaffnage Castle

Coastal Road Trip, Dunstaffnage Castle — First stop of the day, just north of Oban at Dunstaffnage Castle, standing proud over Loch Etive. Famous for the imprisonment of Flora MacDonald after she helped Bonnie Prince Charlie escape Scotland.

Castle Stalker

Coastal Road Trip, Castle Stalker — Castle Stalker reflecting in Loch Laich. Monty Python used this tower house as one of the settings in the film Monty Python and the Holy Grail.

Loch Eil and Ben Nevis

Coastal Road Trip, Loch Eil — Refelctions across the still Loch Eil. We had first traveled west along the north side of Loch Eil from Fort William, but the road was surprisingly busy. However, when we turned off along the south side, we ended up on a lovely quiet lane that then continued on along the west side of Loch Linnhe.

Coastal Road Trip, Loch Eil, Ben Nevis — Ben Nevis, Britain’s highest peak starting to emerge from the cloud.

Coastal Road Trip, Ben Nevis — And almost out of the cloud.

Corran Lighthouse

Coastal Road Trip, Corran Lighthouse — Corran Lighthouse at the Corran-Ardgour ferry crossing.

Gleann Geal

Coastal Road Trip, Gleann Geal, Deer — Mother and fawn, nervously keeping an eye on us as we drove by on the way to the Sound of Mull.

Coastal Road Trip, Gleann Geal, Sheep — This road isn’t big enough for the two of us!

Lochaline

Coastal Road Trip, Lochaline, Otter — Nice beaver, sorry, I mean otter.

Coastal Road Trip, Lochaline to Fishnish Ferry — Last ferry of the day from Lochaline to Fishnish (love that name) on the Isle of Mull. We then double backed on ourselves to Strontian for the night.

Daily video